The race of the Papuas is one which
now possesses very inferior qualities. This
is a fact which is universally admitted.
The reasons also, which produce this inferiority, are sufficiently obvious, but may
be here briefly mentioned as the source of
subsequent deductions. Thus we find that
the very singular and almost unparalleled
soil, which they inhabit, is that which binds
them to such a strong mental confinement.
We may be allowed at present to defer a
more particular explanation of the qualities
of this soil; and we shall say only that this
is a country to which the words of Scripture—"and the earth was without form and void"—may be applied. It is a soil over
which the chariot of Ceres has not yet travelled. Here, were neither the Fatropha, nor
Yams of South America, which could give to
the inhabitants a sort of subsistence (the
first requisite of every human improvement), nor the Vieugnas of the Andes,
which they might tame and appropriate to
their own use: in a word, all external excitements for human improvement are wanting here. As you penetrate into the interior,
even the migratory bird becomes rarer and rarer: and there was required also for this
people a sort of revelation and redemption;
and these were given by the arrival of white
civilized people. As the first and the chief
object of the Government and the people
was to relieve the mother country from the
pressure of her criminals, and to convert
them into useful subjects (one of the most
philanthropical enactments of modern history), it follows that the civilization of the
aborigines was only matter of secondary
importance; but not altogether unimportant,
as the school of Parramatta, and other
similar attempts, sufficiently prove. But
all these attempts thus tried, were only
productive of, disappointment: that which
was commenced with good hopes gave way
to failure; and at length the general voice
of the colony and Europe consigned this
people to the condition of absolute incapacity. But this opinion rested upon foundations deficient in solidity. Mr. Balmain,
who was among the first to examine a Papua
skeleton, found that the skull differed very
slightly from that of the African : and who,
at this time of day, supposes the African
to be wanting in mental capacity? All South
America asserts the abilities of this people,
who there exercise all sorts of human acquirements. Their forms and limbs are
often of the finest models, so much so that
in all the town of Bahia there are to be
found only a few Fidalgo families whose
blood has not been mingled with this race.
The African, inhabiting a luxuriant and
happy country, enjoying, for many ages,
almost the extremes of history and civilization—the Papua broken down by the pressure
of an extreme destitution, and scarcely
ever touched by any civilizing power—this
may be the only difference between those
two human tribes. Let a hundred specimens of our boasted civilization (we speak
of children) be placed amidst the penury
of Australian bushes, and we shall see how
they will exhibit their fancied capabilities:
they will suffer and shrink, like their despised
fellow-creatures. The only age in which
any experiment upon the civilisation of individuals should be tried, is the age in
which we ourselves begin to learn all our
acquirements—period which intervenes
between the child and young man—the age
from seven to fourteen years. It is generally remarked in the Brazils, that well
conditioned negroes of this age become in
twelve or fifteen months altogether Ladinos.[1] This is also the period in which any experiment for civilization of our aborigines
must be tried; and, when once we have
only a small stock of such reclaimed and
English-fashioned people, the further improvement of others would be comparatively
easy, because the people thus improved
understand as well, or better, than those
from whom they have received this improvement, how to communicate their ideas
to their brethren. And the resemblance in
colour, and the many circumstances of connexion originating in their common parentage, would also make this learning far more
productive. This is also the case in the
Brazils, where the improvement of tho negro
people becomes more, easy, because there
existed between the so-fashioned and the
new-comers this constant intercourse. But
it will be objected, all this has been already
tried, boys and girls have been taken under
domestic care for many years, and have
become sufficiently advanced in the course
of time. But at the period when it was
supposed that fruits were lo be gathered
from this improvement even in the age of
puberty, they left their abodes, and rushed
again into the bushes, from which they had
been originally reclaimed. Had you, my
dearest readers, reflected, amongst many
others, upon the establishment of the experienced Jesuits at the Paraguay,[2] you would
know full well that the Abipones, and other
wild American people, fled not from their
superintendence; and this because that
clever fraternity was well acquainted with
the springs and movements of human nature.
When such young boys and girls reach,a
marriageable age, they must be married and
placed in a domestic situation ; for, if not,
the influence of sexual instinct becomes too
strong, in a people so constituted, and who
in reason and morals are altogether deficient. We are then of opinion, that an
institution in which a school or church is
connected with a domestic and rural establishment, is the only undertaking which can
effect here the desired advantages. State
reasons command it, but philanthropy also
may support it. If the Catholic power
which occupied South America made itself, in
some respects, guilty of exterminating its
aborigines by fire and sword, so a similar reproach might, perhaps, with equal justice, be
cast hereafter upon other powers, inasmuch as
they passively allowed to die away, and to
become extinct, a poor and helpless race of
people. Certainly the condition of the aborigines has ever been one of extreme misery;
so much so, that it has occasioned in some
travellers the idea that it would be a benefit
to kill the children, when upon the shoulders
of their mothers.[3]
But, without doubt, the
situation of the people who inhabited the
sea-shores was considerably deteriorated by
the arrival of civilized colonists. Removed from the waters which supplied them with
food, the same population is now concentrated in a narrower compass, and where the
wild animals have become more scarce.
Indeed it must be sufficiently shocking to a
man who has any knowledge of the extentsive trade carrisd on between colonists and
the aborigines of other countries, to see how the Papuas, after a fraternization of
forty years, visit only the streets of Sydney
to obtain there the offals of our slaughter-houses.

Now we have arrived at the second part
of our sketch, and we have to enquire what
results may be expected of the mode by
which this people is at present proposed to
be civilized, by Missionaries? If Catholic
Missionaries had been appointed to act in
this case, we would merely observe that this
would be out of their sphere, even regarding
the verbal meaning of their institution, because Catholic Missionaries are sent out
"contra hæriticos et schismaticos ;" and we
beg to observe, that our Papuas deserve, by
no means, to be put under this application.
They are neither Heretics, nor even Atheists ;
they arc merely in the simple state of irreligion. Hence, therefore, all the advantages from which the Missionary has in all
times availed himself by extirpating prejudices (as we may call them), by ostentatiously overturning heretical temples and
idols, cannot be obtained here: also, the
political means in profiting by the jealousy
of some kings or leaders against each other,
are wanting here; and, therefore, all the advantages which have been so often deduced
by baptizing one or another powerful king
or queen, by which influence their subjects
or partners had been inclined to the same
step. What will then be the actions of the
Missionaries? They may baptize one or
another individual, he will rush again into
the bushes, and the result of such ceremonies will be nothing. To whom will these
gentlemen preach, when their flocks are
not even sedentary in one place even for a
single week? but wandering through bushes
and waters to look out for their food. How
will they supersede polygamy or polyandrism by the sacrament of marriage, when
this people are living in a perfect state of
nature, cohabiting together as time and circumstances may permit? The first object
which is wanted with this people may be,
therefore, not so much to catechize as to
humanize them, and this will never succeed
otherwise than by a domestic or rural establishment. A precious time of forty years
has been already lost, when this people were
us I numerous in the vicinity of the town, and in
the most-peopled districts; in which places
the strongest and most energetical influence
could have been exercised upon them. Some
coercive means had been then very useful
for the colony,and even beneficial for them;
but it is the fate of man to transgress from
one extreme to another, from the tyrannical and cruel manner of the Spaniards,
to a misunderstood and apathetical, but at the
same time very commodious philanthropy.
Some time ago, in a very respectable society, the question was raised whether the
Courts have the power to punish black people
in case of crime. These gentlemen may be
pleased to understand, that all these people
are subjects of the English Crown, or
rather English citizens. And then, when
the now famous Police of London find some
neglected and foundling child, or other sort
of vagabond upon the roads of England,
will they not be entitled to collect such individuals for the purpose of placing them in
some Orphan School or Hospital? I am
sure that it would be possible with a £100
worth of tobacco, to buy a hundred of our
black children (the sweet philanthropists of
this agc may pardon me this horrible phrase),
and with the allowed £500 these children
may be very well educated in some rural
establishment, as their work would very
soon become of some importance, I am also
sure that the fathers and mothers, (if such
distinctions are to be found between these
children of nature), starving with cold and
hunger, will not have at any t¡me the
slightest objection to see their children clothed and fed, and married, and living comfortably. On the contrary, I think that
such a boarding-school would have very soon
a great influx of scholars. It is said that this people like not to work; and it is true,
that aged and inveterate idlers, of black extraction too, are not very easily to he brought
to any labour and order; and it is the same
case with the inhabitants of the Clyde and
the Thames, as every assiduous and honest
settler may have experienced very often.
From the abovementioned boarding-school, our corrected servants, and ticket-of-leave
men, and our little farmers, can be supplied
with women ; because how many years may
it be before our deficiency of this sex can
be supplied with the free girls of the three
United Kingdoms? And it is very seldom
that such a lady will condescend to cohabit
with some embryo farmer, or honest and converted convict servant, who, in a series of
years, has bestowed upon his master assiduous and useful services. The eternal celibacy to which even such converted and honest
convicts are doomed, may be, perhaps, the most heavy part of their punishment; as it
is at the same lime a great damage to the colony in respect of the population, and the
many and many crimes and scandals which are therefrom deduced. And here I must
touch also on the blasphemy of some, perhaps very christian, but, as it seems, not
much history-versed people, who have dogmatically and without reserve, pronounced
this sentence upon our blacks, stigmatizing them with incapacity and inferiority in the
scale of human beings ; but, I dare to say,
that these Papuas will have, perhaps, as
good Franklins and Washingtons, Byrons
and Shakespeares, as the cannibals and wild
fellows which the Romans called once Picts.
And then the Missionary will go to Wellington
Valley, work too in the accustomed manner
of other people of his profession with our
Aborigines, and we shall see the result in a
few years—

Dixi et animam salvavi.

↑Ladinos is the term applied in the Brazils to a
Negro who has learned a trade, and become acquainted with the Portuguese languange. No
classical word has eyer experienced so rare an
application!